linear2. Linear presentations

Most presentations start at the beginning then each slide is presented one after another in numerical order.

This is called a 'Linear presentation'. Slide 1 is followed by Slide 2 then Slide 3 and so on.

In a linear presentation there is no facility to jump to out-of-order slides.

A linear presentation is very good for imparting facts and figures such as presenting the annual results of the company or summarising a finished project. These kinds of presentation have a minimal amount of audience participation.

The features of linear presentations are:

  • Slides are shown in a pre-determined order.
  • Slides that jump out of this sequence are not allowed.
  • Slides follow an ordered line from the beginning to the end of the presentation.
Advantages of linear presentations Disadvantages of linear presentations
Predictable, every audience will see exactly the same presentation Not very interactive with the audience, they cannot change the order of presentation
Relatively easy for another person to do the presentation should the author be unavailable as the presentation always runs in the same order Not flexible in terms of changing the time taken to do the presentation, for instance a presentation planned for 1 hour may now need to be done in half an hour, this is not simple in a linear presentation
Simple to prepare handouts as slides are always in the same order It is apparent to the audience they are not seeing the full presentation if slides need to be skipped
Timing of the presentation is very predictable Can be boring as the audience may have to view slides that happen to be irrelevant to them

 

challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you

Click on this link: Linear Presentations